Burners with extra BTUs can really go a long way to level the playing field, allowing you to “power through” conditions. Additionally, as with many long-running product models, there have been allegations by users online of declining quality control and workmanship. However, personally speaking, our stove has continued to work very well over the years. And, Coleman still backs this camp stove with a 3-year warranty. One of the most important items on your camping checklist is a good camping stove. It should be reliable, easy to use, and a pleasure to cook with.
It was the most powerful of our tabletop stoves, with two 25,000 BTU end burners and one 10,000 BTU central burner. For serious chefs, the free-standing Camp Chef Explorer cooks with a nearly professional-quality level of heat control. It’s overkill for most campers, but it’s perfect for anyone who cooks for large groups or is really serious about their camp meals. The TemboTusk Adjustable Leg Skottle Grill Kit has the lightweight, cobbled-together charm of good adventure gear. However, for the price ($395), we’ve concluded that most people are better served by our discada-style pick, the FireDisc.
With decent simmer control and solid output at full tilt, the Coleman is one of only a few stoves in its price range that’s capable enough for cooking diverse meals. Last but not least, its 11-pound weight and manageable size make the Triton easy to transport in a car and store at home.
The Classic lacks an auto-ignition system, and getting a perfect simmer is slightly trickier than on some of the other models we tested. The small burners are prone to creating hot spots in the center of larger pans, which is a common trend in small-diameter heating elements.
And your family and friends will be surprised by the quality. Each time, we packed the camp stoves in their original boxes for shipping.
This test wasn’t perfect, but the rough rides in the back of a mail truck revealed weaknesses in the Everest’s design.
A solid, reliable, and capable camp stove is a necessity no matter where you camp. Beyond that, if you are someone who enjoys cooking a variety of food at camp — not just packaged oatmeal and burgers — a more versatile camp stove becomes a necessity. When disposing of your bottle, be sure that you’ve completely emptied the tank of all of its remaining gas. Attaching a tank to an open valve on your stove will burn off the final fractions of fuel, but be aware that the last bits of fuel and vapor leave the canister at a remarkably slow rate. Always keep the valve open—even after the flames have sputtered—for about a minute or two to ensure that any final vapor has escaped. However, because of this stove’s single large cooking surface, you can cook for far more people far more quickly than you normally could with a smaller, cast-iron pan.
We counted how many times the temperature went over or under as well as how many times the stove went out. We wanted to know how fast each stove could bring one liter of water to a boil (203 degrees F at around 4,500′). For stoves with two burners, we also measured the time to bring one liter of water to a boil with both burners on high. Stoves with 9,000 to 15,000 BTUs will get the job done, but you’ll notice slower boil times and a drop in cooking performance. The Gas One GS-3000 is a simple, inexpensive single-burner camp stove that really surprised us with its functionality. A wood-burning camping stove is not as fast or convenient as gas-fueled stoves.
A built-in carry handle makes it easy to bring the stove along on your adventures, and its durable, chrome-plated grate is removable for easy cleanup. If you’re in the market for a low-fuss freestanding stove, the Outdoorsman is worth checking out. We recommend using a wand lighter to fire up the burners on this stove, as the flames can singe off all your hair if you’re
not careful. This stove also requires the least maintenance because it has fewer parts to contend with and is black (the most filth-friendly color), making care and cleaning super straightforward. Secondly, the burners are the only obstacle between food and the ground. The freestanding bottomless design ensures food or grease buildup is a thing of the past.
The most fuel-efficient stoves in our review were the stoves that require the usage of a large propane tank. With these stoves, we used a full 11-pound tank and weighed it in between uses. However, the tank was too heavy to use with our smaller, more sensitive scale, so it is possible that our larger scale missed some amount of fuel consumed. This aside, our most fuel-efficient stove was the Camp Chef Mountaineer, which consumed an average of 0.64 ounces of fuel or 0.16% of the fuel in our tank. The Pro 60X burned an average of 1.12 ounces or 0.28% of fuel, and the Outdoorsman used an average of 2.24 ounces or 1 % of fuel over the two tests. It should be no surprise that the Camp Chef Outdoorsman — with two beastly 60,000 BTU burners — absolutely crushed this test, taking an average of 2 minutes 22 seconds to boil one liter.